Florence - Marino Marini Museum Museo Marino Marini

Must-see attractions nearby: Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore Ponte Vecchio Palazzo Vecchio (Palazzo della Signoria) Loggia dei Lanzi Santa Croce Piazza della Signoria San Lorenzo

Having spent many years as a tobacco factory and then most recently an army depot, the church started undergoing conversion in the early 1980s supervised by renowned architects Lorenzo Papi and Bruno Sacchi, who have made the building, with its enmeshing of stairs and galleries and combined effect of woodwork, cast concrete and iron struts, a highly successful setting for the works of art on display.

The museum holds 176 of Marini's graphics, drawings, paintings and sculptures, many of them bequeathed to the city of Florence before his death. Beginning with the picture of the "Maidens" in 1916 they span all his themes and creative periods and obviously include many variations of his famous figures on horseback. Whereas the early works show the horse mostly at ease with mankind, after the 1940s it is bucking and rearing in an effort to dislodge its rider. Marini's other favorite themes included "Pomona", an ample fertility goddess, and images of dancers and clowns.